Two fabulous word books, both ideal Christmas gifts for the pedant in you life. David Crystal has been writing books on the English language for years, and now has at least 15 titles on the subject to his credit. In this one, he's picked 100 words which have in some way shaped the development and use of the language since the first English word was written down in the 5th Century, through to Twittersphere and Unfriend. Each word gets a 4 or 5 page history, and the book is full of fascinating information about variations in spelling and pronunciation, word origins, changes in meaning and usage etc. Who knew, for instance, that 'music' has had more than 40 variations in its spelling, or that 'lord' and 'loaf' both come from the same 9th Century word 'hlaf'. He has also produced a similar book on the strangeness of English spelling called 'Spell It Out'.
Mark Forsyth's chatty and entertaining The Etymologicon covers some of the same territory, but in a very different way. He starts with the word 'book', and his explanation of its early usage leads to 'chicken', then to 'gene', and on it goes, meandering through dozens and dozens of words, and inevitably finishing back at 'book'. It's deeply eccentric, funny, erudite, even sometimes rather ribald, but you will put it down knowing a lot more about the English language than you ever thought you needed to. It has also spawned a sequel, The Horologicon.